Thursday, October 3, 2013
By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, October 3, 2013
U.S. shutdown: Republicans reject call for vote on reopening gov’t
U.S. President Barack Obama brought top lawmakers to the White House on Wednesday as Republicans rejected Democratic demands to vote on legislation ending a two-day partial government shutdown without changes to the nation’s three-year-old health care law.
Despite the meeting, White House press secretary Jay Carney said sharply that Obama “will not offer concessions to Republicans in exchange for not tanking the economy.”
With the nation’s ability to borrow money soon to lapse, Republicans and Democrats alike said the shutdown that has idled some 800,000 federal workers could last for two weeks or more, obliging a divided government to grapple with both issues at the same time.
House Republicans brought a handful of bills to the floor to reopen portions of the government, including veterans’ programs, parks and the National Institutes of Health. Democrats labeled that a piecemeal approach and rejected it, and the White House threatened to veto the measures in the unlikely event they made it to Obama’s desk.
“What we’re trying to do is to get the government open as quickly as possible,” said the House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. “And all that it would take is us realizing we have a lot in agreement.”
Democrats were scathing.
An attempt by Democrats to force shutdown-ending legislation to the House floor failed on a 227-197 vote, with all Republicans in opposition. That left intact the tea party-driven strategy of demanding changes to the nation’s health care overhaul as the price for essential federal financing. Late in the afternoon, leading lawmakers filed into the meeting with Obama. (Source: CTV News)
FEEDBACK
The Hamilton Spectator reprinted a thoughtfully educational email sent by Ron Vince, of Flamborough regarding this cartoon, “Graeme MacKay’s cartoon featuring “Cro-Magnons” and “Modern Man’ — purporting to be a commentary on the current American political impasse — seems to err in contrasting the two groups. Cro-Magnons were, in fact, “modern men.” “Neanderthal” would have been a better, although still unfair (to the Neanderthals), choice to represent the Tea Party. Or is the cartoon in fact a particularly brilliant and subtle condemnation of both sides in the standoff?”
On social media this cartoon garnered less attention than expected, although it did raise the backs up of some conservative message makers at Yahoo News Canada who were quick to make use of their FOX news issued bullet points. More are found on Yahoo Canada’s Facebook Page. It’s also posted to the huge worldwide aggregator of editorial cartoons everywhere at www.cagle.com, joining hundreds of other cartoons with similar sentiment critical of the Tea Party movement. Check in to this link to monitor the right wingers to catch up with their bullet points.
